Why Your Keurig is Shutting Off While Brewing + How to Fix It
I’ve been using my Keurig coffee maker to brew a quick cup of coffee in the morning for almost a year now. Recently, however, my Keurig will at times completely shut off while it’s brewing my coffee, and when I restart it shuts off again.
If you’re here, you’re probably having a similar problem. So what’s causing our Keurig’s to shut off while brewing? and how can we fix it?
Many times a Keurig will shut off while brewing because the K-Cup hasn’t been punctured on the bottom by the needle in the K-Cup basket. It can also shut off as a result of a clogged brew needle, faulty outlet, or misaligned water reservoir magnet.
In this article, I’m not only going to cover all the possible things that may be causing your Keurig to shut off while brewing, but I’m also going to tell you how to fix each one so that you can get back to making and drinking your coffee without any issues.
What Causes a Keurig to Shut Off While Brewing
1. The Bottom of the K Cup is Unpunctured
The most likely reason your Keurig is stopping brewing is not actually a problem with the Keurig itself, but with the K Cup.
You probably already know that when you put a Keurig pod in the basket and close the lid it gets a hold punctured in the top. But what you might not know is that the K cup gets a hole punctured in the bottom as well.
If a hole doesn’t get punctured in the bottom of the pod, the water that’s injected into it won’t be able to escape, and the Keurig will stop brewing to prevent overflow.
A hole may not get poked into the bottom of the pod if the pod is extra thick (some milk K pods like cappuccinos and lattes are harder than others), or if the needle at the bottom of the brew basket has gotten bent.
So the next time your Keurig shuts off while brewing, open it up, take the pod out, and check the bottom. If there’s no hole or only a partially punctured hole on the bottom you’ve found what’s responsible.
To fix this you’re either going to need to poke a hole in the bottom of the K pod manually be pressing it with force into the pod basket until it punctures, or use pliers to bend back the needle in the bottom of the pod basket upright and back to normal.
Or just use a reusable K Cup
2. Disrupted Brewing Process
If your K pods are getting punctured properly and the Keurig is still stopping brewing, I’ve got another possible explanation for you.
This one I haven’t confirmed with anyone else, but from my personal experience my Keurig, which is a few years old at this point, will stop brewing most often not when I pour the water in, turn it on, and start it up, but when I pour the water in and turn it on and go do something else and come back to start the coffee a few minutes later after it’s automatically turned off.
Usually, when I do this the machine will light up like normal and say it’s brewing, but it won’t actually make my coffee and will just turn off a few minutes later.
Even if I restart the brewing process it won’t make me any coffee unless I leave it alone and come back in an hour or two.
I wonder if my older machine is getting confused when its brewing process is interrupted and then started back up again. Whatever the cause, it’s really annoying when it happens so now if I’m going to make coffee I do it all at once without letting the Keurig sit or turn off before I hit the brew button.
3. Misaligned Magnet in the Water Reservoir
A quick fix you can make if your Keurig has a detachable water reservoir and is shutting off while brewing is to unplug the machine and make sure that the magnet on the water reservoir is lined up with the magnet on the brewer.
If the magnets aren’t in contact or are only in contact a little bit, the Keurig won’t sense any available water and won’t be able to brew.
4. Auto Off Timer
Another quick fix you can make if your Keurig has an auto shut-off or disable timer is to turn that off. This will prevent that timer from running out while your brewing and turning the Keurig off.
If you’re not sure what kind of Keurig you have and whether or not it has a water reservoir or auto off timer, I recommend checking out What Keurig Model You Have with Picture
5. The Keurig Needs to Be Descaled
A slightly more time-consuming method, but one that might be necessary to fix the problem, is “descaling” or cleaning your Keurig. Descaling will clean out any mineral deposits or debris that have built up inside of the Keurig that may be causing it to shut off during brewing.
There are tons of tutorials online that will show you how to descale your Keurig, but you can learn from Keurig themselves on their website here.
And you can find descaling solution, (the stuff you pour into the machine to clean it out) on Amazon here.
6. The Keurig Needs to Be Reset
If your Keurig is still shutting off while brewing it may be because of an internal glitch in the Keurig’s technology. If you think this might be the case, your best course of action is to reset the machine’s internal computer.
Learn how to reset your Keurig properly from the video above or a separate article here
Call Customer Service
If you’ve tried all the solutions above and are still having problems with your Keurig shutting off while brewing, you can call Keurig’s customer Service team for assistance at 1-866-901-BREW(2739).
They’ll probably suggest you do a few of the things I already described above, but if you tell them you’ve tried to fix it and still have your warranty they may even send you a brand-new Keurig as a replacement!
Final Thoughts
Keurig coffee makers are a quick and easy to use machine that many people rely on to brew their morning cup of joe, which is why it’s so annoying when they don’t work.
I hope that one of the solutions I gave in this article, from as simple as puncturing the bottom of the pod to descaling the entire Keurig could help you get your Keurig functioning and making coffee again.
And if you’d like to learn more Keurig tips and tricks be sure to check out the rest of my website!
